"The 'raster effects feature' in Macromedia FreeHand MX opens new possibilities to a designer. Operations that used to involve several applications can now be achieved within FreeHand alone. Another welcome step forward is that FreeHand MX supports transparency in bitmaps and that thanks to the 'gradient mask raster effect' you can have objects that fade into transparency. This is a wonderful feature that gives the designer a lot more creative freedom."

"Macromedia FreeHand has a reputation among professional illustrators for a uniquely intuitive user interface, and FreeHand MX takes this to the next level. The user interface has been unified with the rest of the Macromedia MX product family, complete with dockable panels to ease the transition from one application to the next. It's a cleaner, more streamlined working area designed to maximize user efficiency and minimize on-screen clutter. I always work in FreeHand for illustration, basic layout, package design, and any other uses I can come up with. The entire art department here at Disc Makers uses FreeHand for CD packaging design because it just beats the pants off of other illustration software."

"Because Macromedia FreeHand has been the ultimate illustration tool for years, it was hard to imagine how it can be improved. But Macromedia Freehand MX exceeds all expectations with its live effects, Action Tool for applying Macromedia Flash actions, and a tighter integration with the Macromedia MX product family. With multi-publishing capabilities, designing, reviewing, and printing our forms is much easier. In short - its an indispensable tool for any designer."

"Macromedia FreeHand MX is a big step forward towards creating a platform capable of supporting a company in the process of developing complex projects, from the layout design to the integration with application servers. At Adacto we are used to thinking in terms of cross-media, therefore the new characteristics of FreeHand MX seem great to us: the integration with Macromedia Flash MX has become considerably stronger, as well as the possibility to create .swf file directly from within Freehand MX. Also the new effects and tools, like extrude and navigator, not to mention the improved control of printing, have permitted us to cut the total work time by around 30%."

"Macromedia FreeHand has always been a multifaceted product making it a much more valuable tool than other leading illustration products. FreeHand MX takes that even further with tools like the new connector tool which is great for creating technical diagrams increasing productivity dramatically. In addition to all the great added strengths are core drawing tools for creating amazing illustrations. I love the new extrude tool in FreeHand MX as it allows us to get some really interesting 3D object in a matter of seconds. No modeling no add-on plug in app it is built right in working seamlessly with the rest of the application."